That I was right in my Position “that a considerable Time must elapse before the united States can arise to Greatness” I find confirmed by your last Letter.1 That our Situation, Resources and Population may & ought to rank Us high on the Scale of Nations is indisputably true. But the heterogeneous Materials which compose our extensive federal Republic; the Jealousies, the Ignorances, & the paltry Views of paltry Politicians, will long impede our national Prgress. Why do we hear of a Faction at New York attempting to lessen the Influence of the Vice President but for the Weight he gives to the Eastern States? And why is he to have a scanty Provision for his Services, but because he contends for Dignity & Energy in the Government & its Officers? I have sometimes thought there was something in the Constitution of our Countrymen naturally opposed to Men of great Talents. Owing I suppose to their conceiving, & justly enough, that when they chuse Persons of Common Abilities to Offices they make them what they are, but Men of Genius make themselves. And what is still worse, the few great Men which God has given to a Nation, will rouse them from their Indolence & point the Way to Greatness & to Happiness. Americans have no Objection to public Prosperity, provided it is confined to a narrow Scale. And these Principles will continue to be acted upon, untill every State Constitution is annihilated, and Governors &c become what they only ought to be, Corporation Officers. We therefore hope that Congress will pass as many general Acts as possible that the national Legislative, Judicial & executive Powers may be speedily & universally felt in every part of the united States. Among other Acts, a Bankrupt Law is much wanted, & would conduce to make many Individuals feel the Force, & participate in the Advantages of the national Government more than any Thing. The numerous Debts contracted before the War, & at the Peace, with the real or artificial Scarci[ty] of Cash which is so distressingly felt throughout the whole Confederacy, calls for such a Relief. Besides the Inconveniences resulting from some States having Bankrupt Acts, some, Statutes of Insolvency, & others being without any provisional Relief. The Revenue Laws controul & command the States at Large, Bankrupt Statutes would regulate & govern the dearest, because the pecuniary Interests of every Subject of every State.—

In Consequence of one Paragraph in your last obliging Favour of 27 May, I inclose a Letter to the President, which if you approve of, I wish may be sealed & sent to him, either through the Medium of the Post Office, or as You please. I have my own Doubts on the Subject of such an Application. And therefore beg leave to trust to your Judgement for it’s Propriety. The awkwardness of the Direction is humbly copied from the Stile of the House of Representatives of the United States.

I am, Dear Sir, most cordially Yours

No! You and I will not cease to discuss political questions: but We will agree to disagree, whenever We please, or rather whenever either of Us thinks he has reason for it.— I really know not what you mean by apeing the Corruptions of the British Court.1

I wish Congress had been called to meet at Philadelphia: but as it is now here, I can conceive of no way to get it transported thither, without tearing and rending.— I own to you, that I shall wish to remain here rather than go to any other place than Philadelphia. Congress can not be accommodated in any other than a great City.

There was a dark and dirty Intrigue, which propagated in the Southern States that New England would not vote for G. Washington, and in the Northern States that New York Virginia and South Carolina would not vote for him but that all would vote for me, in order to Spread a Panick least I should be President, and G. W. Vice President: [and this] ma[nuvire] made dupes even of two Con[necticut Electors—] I am well aware that this plott originated in N. York and am not at a Loss to guess the Men or their Motives.2 I know very well how to make these Men repent of their rashness.— it would be easy to sett on foot an Inquiry: but it is not worth while.

That every Part of the Conduct and feelings of the Americans tends to that Species of Republick called a limited Monarchy I agree.— They were born and brought up in it.— Their Habits are fixed in it: but their Heads are most miserably bewildered about it. There is not a more ridiculous Spectacle in the Universe, than the Politicks of our Country exhibits.— bawling about Republicanism which they understand not; and acting a Farce of Monarchy. We will have as you say “but one great Man” yet even he shall not be a great Man.

I also, am as much a Republican as I was in 1775.— I do not “consider hereditary Monarchy or Aristocracy as Rebellion against Nature.” on the contrary I esteem them both Institutions of admirable Wisdom and exemplary Virtue, in a certain Stage of Society in a great Nation. The only Institutions that can possibly preserve the Laws and Liberties of the People. and I am clear that America must resort to them as an Asylum against Discord Seditions and Civil War and that at no very distant Period of time. I shall not live to see it—but you may. I think it therefore impolitick to cherish Prejudices against Institutions which must be kept in View as the Hope of our Posterity.— I am by no means for attempting any Such thing at present.— Our Country is not ripe for it, in many respects and it is not yet necessary but our ship must ultimately land on that shore or be cast away.

I do not “abhor Titles, nor the Pageantry of Government”—if I did I should abhor Government itself.— for there never was, and never will be, because there never can be, any Government without Titles and Pageantry. There is not a Quaker Family in Pensilvania, governed without Titles and Pageantry. not a school, not a Colledge, not a Clubb can be governed without them.

“I love the People,” with You.— too well to cheat them, lie to them or deceive them.— I wish those who have flattered them so much had loved them half as well.— If I had not loved them I never would have Served them— if I did not love them now, I would not Serve them another hour—for I very well know that Vexation and Chagrine, must be my Portion, every moment I shall continue in public Life.

My Country appears to me, I assure you in great danger of fatal Divisions, and especially because I Scarcely know of two Persons, who think, Speak and Act alike in matters of [Governmen]t. I am with real Friendship yours